Congress kills FCC Internet privacy rule: Help states resist

The United States Congress and President Trump have killed a new
Internet privacy rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) late last year, but state legislators have stepped in to try to
fill the gap.

The right to use the Internet without fear of indisciminate bulk
surveillance is an important aspect of software freedom. We've
spoken out against mass surveillance by governments before, and
when people's options for Internet access become limited to a few huge
companies, they become more vulnerable to the possibility of having
records of their Internet activity collected.

The new rule would have required ISPs to protect individually
identifiable customer proprietary network information (like
application usage and geolocation), personally identifiable
information (including physical address, date of birth, and government
ID numbers), and content of communications (like the text of an email
or the audiovisual information in a video chat). It would have
prevented your ISP from selling that information to marketers,
redirecting your searches (presumably in exchange for payment by a
third party), and doing other uncomfortable things without having to
tell you what they are up to, as EFF describes. Not having such
protections in place is doubly creepy because many ISPs require the
use of modems that only work with proprietary software that keeps you
from knowing everything the modem does.

If you live in the United States, you can support these state level
efforts by calling, writing, or emailing your legislators:

If a bill has been introduced, and they support it: thank them and
tell them why this issue matters to you

If a bill has been introduced and they do not support it (yet): tell
them why they should

If no bill has been introduced (or your legislature is not currently
in session): tell them why they should introduce a measure

And wherever you are, now is a good time for a refresher on how to
protect your privacy online. Here's three easy but important steps to take:

The FSF's Email Self-Defense Guide will help you learn to protect
your email communications by using GnuPG to encrypt them.

Always use HTTPS to encrypt your Web traffic from being read by
anybody but the browser and the server of the site you're
visiting. EFF's HTTPS Everywhere is a browser extension that
will help you do this automatically.